Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999

Title: Working Our Way Forward

Author: Vickie Moseley (vickiemoseley1978@yahoo.com)

Summary: Fill in the blank for One Son.

Spoiler: Two Fathers, One Son, and a bunch of season six

Category: V, UST, A

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Again, this is all the fault of Chris Carter, Frank
Spotniz and 10-13 Productions. I give them full blame and all the
money. I'll take the credit for trying to make some sense of that
last scene.

Archive: yes

Author notes: I'm calm. Yes, I'm calm now. It's been a full week
and I can breathe again <G> But for those of you who are still
confused, here is a possible explanation. And yes, I know there are
strings hanging. It wouldn't be an X File if there weren't hanging
strings. <G>

Thank you Susan and Brandon for the fast turn around. You guys are
great!

Working Our Way Forward
by Vickie Moseley
vmoseley@fgi.net

Dana Scully pulled up to the lobby entrance of the Watergate, not
bothering to turn off her car engine. If her partner didn't have his
sorry ass down and ready to move by the time she arrived, she was
more than content to leave him behind and go to the Potomac
Rail yards herself. Damn the man.

But, as it turned out, he was waiting for her just inside the doors.
He got in quietly, not looking her way, not saying a word.

"Where's Diana?" Scully tried very hard to keep the 'catty' tone
from her voice. In the back of her head she could hear her sister's
taunt 'Rarow, kitty needs some milk!' She shook her head to dispel
the image and almost missed his whispered words.

"She went on ahead."

Scully pulled the car out into traffic and drove for several blocks. It
wasn't until they hit a red light that she gave her partner a second
look. What she found didn't ease her mind.

"Mulder, what's the matter? What happened back there?" The
words were out before she had a chance to stop them. In many
respects, she didn't really want to know what 'happened' back at
Diana's apartment. She didn't really want to hear if her partner of
6 years ran back to his former lover with open arms and a story
about how he always trusted her, would always believe in her. If
that's what happened to put him in such a state, Scully didn't want
that much information. On the other hand, if he found evidence of
Diana's betrayal . . .

"Not what you thought," he said, a muttered breath of words
against the sound of the heater and the windshield wipers.

Scully bit her lip. Just let him leave it at that, she prayed.

"He was there."

She took her eyes off the road long enough to stare at his face a
moment. "He who?"

"Mr. Spender, Sr. C.G.B. What ever the hell he goes by this
week," Mulder said with a bitter laugh. "He showed up at her
apartment. Just walked right in."

"See, Mulder, it's what I was telling you. What the guys were
trying to tell you," Scully responded, hope springing in her chest
once again. Maybe it had been a good idea for him to go over there
after all.

"He wasn't looking for Diana. He was looking for his son."

Scully's chest constricted again. Damn it, what would it take,
finding Diana's engraved MIB membership card?

"Why would he look for Spender at Fowley's apartment?" Scully
said dryly. From what she'd seen of the two of them, they were
more 'office mates' than actual partners. They certainly hadn't
investigated any files in the office together.

"I asked myself that. But I didn't have time to consider the answer.
He started talking."

"Cancerman? Talking? Bet that was a load of bull-"

"I don't know, Scully. So much of what he said . . . it rang true.
He's deceived me plenty of times, but for the life of me I can't
name a single time when the bastard has out and out lied to my
face."

"Mulder, there haven't been that many times when you've _been_
face to face with the bastard!" Scully said in exasperation. Her
voice sounded loud in the small confines of the front seat of the car.
Mulder turned his head toward her, his eyes dull, expressionless.

"I think he was telling the truth."

"Why?" Scully demanded. "Why now? Why do you believe him?"
She let her next thought go unvoiced. Why do you believe
everyone except me?

"I believe him because what he said matched perfectly with what
Cassandra told us earlier. She was right. The consortium has been
working with the aliens. Working with them, and against them, at
the same time. But time has run out. We were right, Scully.
Cassandra wasn't infected with some viral agent of unknown origin.
She is patient zero, that much is true. But she's the success of their
work. She's the alien/human hybrid they've all been working for."

Scully closed her eyes and swallowed hard. "So, where were you
going?"

He'd been staring out the window, lost in thought. "Huh?"

"Where were you going? You were going somewhere with Diana,"
she said, fighting the bitter taste in her mouth. "You said
something about a 'safe base'?"

He continued to stare out at the rain. "It's at the El Rico Air Force
Base. A hanger. It's the safe base. The only way to survive."

Now he was getting her worried. "Mulder. Survive what?"

He turned toward her and she could see how dark his eyes had
become. "Colonization."

With his words came understanding. Colonization. The concept
was so unbelievable. An alien race, coming to the planet with the
express purpose of eliminating the life forms already inhabiting it.
Is this how the Native Americans felt when the first Europeans
landed on their shores, she wondered idly to herself.

"Mulder, that can't be true. I mean, that's simply, . . . it's totally,"
she stammered, trying to find the words to make herself believe that
he was wrong, that he was lying. She searched for the evidence she
could use to convince herself that they were all safe.

He reached over and took her hand. "We can try to get your mom,
if you want," he said softly, his thumb stroking the back of her
hand.

She opened her mouth but no words would come out.

"I wish we could save all of them. But there isn't time."

She swallowed hard, breathing shallowly. It was too much. More
than she could ever hope to handle in a single sitting. But to freeze.
to do nothing, would go against everything she'd ever trained for,
everything her father had ever taught her. It would go against
everything they'd ever done in their partnership.

"No, Mulder. We stop this. Any way we can. And we do it now,
tonight."

He looked at her, and for the first time in weeks she saw a new
determination light his eyes.

"Then we stop them. Now," he answered and turned his face
forward, staring once again out the windshield. They spoke no
more for the rest of the ride.

There wasn't time for a plan of action. When they arrived at the
train yards, he instinctively knew which car was the one they were
looking for, which train was the one they wanted. In her own
heart, she knew it too. It matched the car she'd seen years ago, but
that one had been abandoned, just a shell. The powers that be had
just wanted to show her enough to throw her off the chase. It had
worked, for a while. It wouldn't work any more. Scully pointed
out a car on a train that was picking up speed. Mulder nodded and
she put her foot on the gas, racing the train and finally passing it.

'Never park on a train tracks' her father's voice chanted in her ears
but she ignored it pointedly and got out of the car, gun ready.
Mulder was next to her in seconds and they were both firing at the
cab of the train. It looked like the engineer was hit, that he was
putting on the brakes, but later, she decided that was probably
wishful thinking. At the last second, Mulder's hand on her arm
tugged her to safety. Her car was crushed on impact with the now
fast moving train, and tossed off the tracks like a crumbled milk
carton goes into the trash.

She stood for a moment, horrified at their failure. But Mulder's
hand on her shoulder shook those thoughts from her mind. "We
need to get to the base."

She drew out her cell phone. "Let's hope he's working late again,"
she smiled at her partner and dialed the number of their old boss.

The conversation was short and to the point. He agreed to pick
them up in twenty minutes.

More than enough time to stand in the cold and feel awkward.

"So, why were you calling me?" she asked, after about five minutes
of stamping her feet to warm them.

Mulder looked up at her in complete surprise. "When?"

"When you were leaving with Diana. To go to the El Rico. Why
did you call me?" Scully's eyes were partly obscured by her hair
being whipped by the wind. She liked it that way. She didn't want
to give him any clues, any chances to 'modify' his answer to suit
her mood. She wasn't sure what her mood was, but she sure knew
she didn't want him to know it, either.

"I told you. To get you to go to the safe base."

She stamped her feet, and tried to pass it off as getting warm more
than a childish display of anger. "No, Mulder. Not why _why_.
Why _me_?"

His eyes narrowed as he glared at her. "That's a stupid question,"
he hissed and turned his back on her to look down the road for
Skinner's car.

She grabbed his sleeve and spun him around, surprised at how
easily he turned toward her. "No, Mulder, it's not. You were with
Diana. She believes you. She's on your side. Now, why in the hell
did you need me hanging around?" she spat out and he flinched at
her words, but didn't drop his gaze from her face.

"I've told you before, but like everything else, Scully, you don't
believe me." He stood his ground, not saying anything else.

"Mulder, damn it, just because I don't buy into the fact that Diana
wants to help you . . ."

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it, Scully. So if
you want to keep this civil, just drop the subject. Like you always
do!"

It was her turn to flinch. "What are you talking about?" she
demanded.

"Why should I tell you? So you can give me another 'oh brother'?
So you can pull away from me, put up more walls. Why the hell
should I give you the satisfaction?" He was yelling now, towering
over her, conquering her personal space as his own. "I love you,
goddammit. What will it take for you to believe me on that one,
huh, Scully?"

Headlights caught them before she could answer. As quickly as his
anger had flared, it burned away leaving her cold in it's wake.
"This is him," he told her perfunctorily and guided her over to the
waiting car.

They got in the car, Skinner giving them each a scrutinizing glare.
"OK, is somebody going to tell me where I'm going?" he growled.

"El Rico Air Base," Scully supplied from the backseat when it was
obvious that Mulder wasn't going to be forthcoming.

"It's over by now," Mulder said, almost under his breath.

"We don't know that. And there's still the chance we can find
Cassandra," Scully corrected him. He shrugged his shoulders and
turned his face out the passenger side window.

"Agent Scully, since your partner seems to be rather reluctant to
talk, can you tell me exactly _why_ we are going to an Air Force
Base? Maybe you can put some light on the subject," Skinner said
with a glower he sent her by way of the rear view mirror.

Scully licked her lips and shot her partner a long look. Mulder was
in another world, somewhere outside the car as well as the
conversation. "Sir, I'm not sure what we're going to find there.
But Agent Mulder has been led to believe that it might be where
Cassandra Spender has been taken."

"Or will be taken from," Mulder muttered

Skinner absorbed that without expression. "Where did you get this
information?"

Mulder still refused to turn toward the older man, but drew in a
deep breath, then sighed it out. "The Smoking Man. He told me.
He told me," he said, as if saying it twice would make it acceptable
without explanation.

"Should we call for back up?" Skinner asked both agents. Mulder
snorted and Scully shook her head.

"If it's over, as Mulder seems to think, there may be nothing to
find," she said softly.

They fell into a silence that was cold and uncomfortable and lasted
for the rest of the ride.

When they pulled up to the hangar, Skinner was first confused by
the lack of security. The guard house was empty and looked
unused. The hanger had several cars around it, but all held civilian
plates, no government issued plates in sight.

"What the hell . . ." he muttered as he followed his two agents,
former agents, he reminded himself, into the hanger.

The minute he was inside the door, the odor hit him. The sickening
stench of seared human flesh. Sweet and burned, almost like
burned sugar. It turned his stomach before he could get four feet
into the hangar.

There was no smoke in the air. So it didn't take long to find the
charred bodies, lying haphazardly on the cement floor. Mulder was
darting from one body to the next, but Skinner had no idea what the
agent was looking for. Scully crouched near a body, smaller than
most of the rest. "It's a child," she said to no one in particular.

Skinner's eyes couldn't take it all in. Finally, his investigator's mind
kicked in and he started counting out loud. "Twenty-three,
twenty-four, twenty-five, . . ."

Scully broke his thoughts. "I count 32 bodies, sir. I'd venture to
say that approximately 9 are children or small women. Without an
autopsy, it will be hard to say."

Skinner looked over at her, hoping for some reassurance, some
explanation. "What happened? Is this like, . . . like the bridge in
Pennsylvania?"

Scully looked around slowly, taking in the whole scene. "I can't
say for certain, sir. All I saw were photos of that incident. I was in
the hospital during the investigation. But on first sight, yes. I
would have to say whatever killed these people is somehow linked
to what happened on the bridge in Pennsylvania."

"Diana's car is not here," Mulder said, coming to stand next to
Scully.

"Maybe she hasn't arrived, yet," she answered, feeling the need to
reassure her partner. On second look, though, he didn't seem to be
upset, just curious.

"I found two sets of tire tracks that appear recent. The mud out on
the drive helped set them apart. One set was obviously a truck, I'd
say military. The other was a passenger car," Mulder said, pulling
Scully's arm and pointing out the tire tracks. "And notice that the
car pulled out, leaving a little rubber in it's path. Whoever it was
decided to run from what was happening."

"Who do you think it was?" Skinner asked, joining them.

Mulder looked over at Scully and then at the tracks. "If I had to
guess, I'd say it was the same man who gave me the information."

"Spender's father? Cancerman?" Scully asked, a little confused.

"The same," Mulder answered.

Scully shifted uncomfortably and looked around at the bodies. "I'll
get started on the autopsies immediately, sir. I think we can
identify most of the victims using dental records, but it will be
difficult without a clue as to who was here."

"Do your best, Scully. I'll have the Path Dept. helping you on it."

"Thank you, sir."

Skinner walked over to look again at the bodies, leaving Scully with
her partner. "I'll have the Bureau send me Diana's dental records.
I'll search for her first, Mulder," she said with a sigh.

"You won't find her," he said and turned to go back out to
Skinner's car.

Scully ran to catch up, coming up beside him as he reached the car
door. "How do you know that?" she demanded, holding the door
closed with her hand as he reached for the handle.

He stopped, and for a moment, she thought he'd be angry. But he
wasn't, he just look sad.

"Scully, do you know how they determined if someone was a
practitioner of witchcraft during the witch trials?"

She shook her head confused. "Mulder, I really don't think . . ."

He held up his hand to quiet her. "They would bind the accused with
ropes tied to large rocks and then throw them into deep pools. If
the person was a witch, they would magically sever the ties and
swim to the top. If they were innocent . . ." he trailed off, offering
her the opportunity to finish the thought.

"If they were innocent, they died," she said quietly.

"But it was a sure bet they'd go to heaven," he said with one of his
self depreciating grins. "Basically, if you were an adept, you
survived, but they burned you at the stake immediately afterward."

"Rough crowd to play to," Scully joked, relieved at his lighter
attitude.

"The roughest. But that's how I know Diana isn't in there. That's
how I know she survived, at least this far."

"You think she's a witch?" Scully asked, obviously confused by his
sudden change of opinion.

He smiled at her and slowly shook her head. "Present company's
opinion notwithstanding, no, I don't think she's a witch." He
turned to let his gaze fall on the hanger, and watched it as several
police cars pulled up, sirens and lights blaring in the night. "But I
do think Diana is adept."

the end.

Yes, I know, I just contradicted my own story <VEG> But that's the
beauty of fan fic ;) And I am thinking of another one in this series.
I always try to meet all demands of my beta readers <G>

Vickie

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The first person to slap me on
the ass was a federal employee.
He was the army doctor at Fort
Benning, Georgia, who brought
me into this world.

James Carville _We're Right and
They're Wrong_

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^